Bee subfamilies

The Apinae are the subfamily that includes the majority of bees in the family Apidae. It includes the familiar "corbiculate" (pollen basket) bees—bumblebees, honey bees, orchid bees, stingless bees, and the extinct genus Euglossopteryx. It also includes all but two of the groups (excluding Nomadinae and Xylocopinae) that were previously classified in the family Anthophoridae.

Nomadinae is a subfamily of bees in the family Apidae. They are known commonly as cuckoo bees.

thumb|upright=1|Ceratina sp.

Within the insect order Hymenoptera, the Halictinae are the largest, most diverse, and most recently diverged of the four halictid subfamilies. They comprise over 2400 bee species belonging to the five taxonomic tribes Augochlorini, Thrinchostomini, Caenohalictini, Sphecodini, and Halictini, which some entomologists alternatively organize into the two tribes Augochlorini and Halictini.

Megachilinae is the largest subfamily of bees in the family Megachilidae. It includes mason bees, leafcutter bees, and carder bees.

The subfamily Dasypodainae (originally named "Dasypodidae") is a small subfamily of melittid bees, with more than 100 species in eight genera, found in Africa and the northern temperate zone, primarily in xeric habitats.

thumb|Calliopsis sp., female The bee subfamily Panurginae is a diverse lineage of 33 genera in 7 tribes. They are particularly diverse in the New World, though scarce in the tropics, and in the Old World they can be found primarily in the Palaearctic and Africa, but absent from Australia and tropical Asia. They tend to be associated with xeric or sandy habitats.

Rophitinae is a subfamily of sweat bees in the family Halictidae. There are about 13 genera and more than 260 described species in Rophitinae. thumb|Xeralictus timberlakei

Meganomiinae is a subfamily of melittid bees, with 10 species in four genera, found only in Africa, primarily in xeric habitats, with the distributional limits in Yemen and Madagascar. They are rather different in appearance from the other groups of past/present melittids, being large bees (10–22 mm), mostly black with strong yellow markings, resembling anthidiine megachilids. Males of this subfamily are known to have hidden sterna.